Julia Carpenter: Spider-Woman II/Arachne/Madame Web Appreciation 2022

[seccruz]

I look forward to them doing that!

Mayday too? Huh... That is a choice...

[bat22]

Jessica Drew was the Spider-Woman I was first introduced to. While she still has a special place with me, it's also second place to Julia Carpenter. I would rather JC be Spider-Woman or Codename: Arachne again but, as mentioned earlier in this topic, there's an overabundance of female spiders.

I thought that making Julia the next Madame Web was a stroke of genius given the psionic nature of her powers, but I also feel that it is a role that should've been teased for the not-so-near future like Old Man Logan or Maestro Hulk, a time when Rachel herself becomes a mother. I think Julia's still young enough to have adventures of her own but, with the female spiders cluttering the east coast, grudgingly accept that the Madame Web mantle gives JC relative safety and distinction. Hmm, maybe she should just pack up with Rach and go west.

[bat22]

But speaking of Julia's classic duds, I am surprised that she never seemed to get a storyline alongside Venom. Of all the female Spiders, she'd be the most fitting (apart from Eddie's ex-wife/original She-Venom).

Commissioned piece from artist nunchaku.

[Huntsman Spider]

But speaking of Julia's classic duds, I am surprised that she never seemed to get a storyline alongside Venom. Of all the female Spiders, she'd be the most fitting (apart from Eddie's ex-wife/original She-Venom).

Commissioned piece from artist nunchaku.
Attachment 125811

Not bad. Not bad at all.

[bat22]

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Comic book cover worthy, IMO.

I originally wanted one of the lesser known symbiotes, Lasher, to go against all the She-Venom artwork seen with other Marvel ladies or OCs. But I went with the artist's error when it occurred to me that Julia actually suited the pairing more than most any of them.

The follow-up to that image...

[Lukmendes]

In Dylan Brock's case, he and Eddie spent at least a year, maybe more than that, in another universe where Eddie really did kill himself before the Venom symbiote could find him, so it'd bonded with Anne instead, so that could factor into it, especially given that Venom #200, the last issue of Donny Cates's run, implied that one more year might have passed since King in Black's conclusion.

I don't even know what's going on with post-Cates Venom, I'm talking about how he looked older than Rachel in Cates' own run, and if he just looked older that'd be fine, but he's likely meant to be older too.

But yes, the sliding timescale is incredibly inconsistent.

And that's putting it lightly lol.

Like, I'm not even sure if the "4 real life years are one year at Marvel" was ever legit, but even if it was, it makes no sense, because for at least the first four years or so, time advanced in real time, and it's specially noticeable with ASM and X-Men, at some point time stopped advancing as fast, and now we have a lot of nonsense happening in months, weeks, or maybe even days.

And that's without getting into Spidey's age, considering Spencer's run has a throwaway line where MJ says Spidey is on his mid 20's, meaning about only 10 years have passed since his debut, instead of 13 or 14 lol.

As for Julia, Rachel, and Julia's parents, be glad that s*** didn't turn out like Alpha Flight's last ongoing run by Greg Pak, where Heather Hudson, albeit while brainwashed by the (so-called) Master of the World, slaughtered her parents for refusing to give back her and Mac's daughter Claire after a court judged her and Mac as unfit parents whose superhero lifestyle would put Claire at too much risk.

While Julia's characterization gets one dimensional at times, she's, reasonable enough to not kill people because of that, since unlike characters who do this, she's against killing, and more importantly, she actually thinks about how Rachel feels, to the point that in Iron Man#214, she decided to not reunite with Rachel because living on the run would be horrible for her:

She should still have them, and in combination with her Madame Web powers . . .

I legit think this is part of the reason she's as sidelined as she is, though, only part of the reason, stuff like popularity also affects how useful a character is, and Julia is the least popular among the currently active Spider-Women (Unless we acknowledge Charlotte lol).

Like, "peak" Julia when she combined both was briefly before Spider-Island, where she kept up with Spidey after he combined his own powers with martial arts training, becoming the Way of Spider/Spider-Fu, and it's really noticeable for Julia to be that good considering that Slott made it so that Spidey is able to casually beat almost anyone's ass whenever he remembers he has Spider-Fu (Though he lost to Kaine after Kaine saw the new moves, a reason isn't given for this, but I like to think that Spidey was being too linear with his fighting style, meaning he does things in a specific way but gets screwed over when someone finds a way to counter him).

Considering her strength level isn't that far behind Spidey (At least in theory, his strength feats can get absurd), and how she's not really formally trained, just her combining precognition with her Spider-Powers can make her one of the strongest Spiders on a pure combat point of view, and the only reason she's not the strongest is because there are others who are way above her in strength, DeFalco's Black Tarantula and Spider-Queen are safely above everyone else with what they can do.

So yeah, she could potentially be really broken, and that could make it so more popular characters don't have as much time to shine, so she gets sidelined, writers don't tend to care about her much, which also gets her sidelined, and she's not really popular so she has few chances to shine...

Honestly I wouldn't mind a few nerfs to her precognition when she's fighting, I do think it should be there still, but not use it the way Slott implied it could be used, because that could be too much, I think a decent enough way to balance it would be for her to need to concentrate to see the future when it's not randomly activating, that way using it during a battle would be harder, and then it could have the usual precog issues where she doesn't always see the "right" future, but is still strong enough to set itself apart from Spider-Sense, where it activates only when some danger is about to happen but is not specific, and Julia can see the specifics but will only activate if she's looking into it, so Spidey has the better one in spontaneous danger, and Julia has a better one to learn what danger is, and maybe even be aware of it (Or have an idea it'll happen), and maybe even plan around it.

Too bad anything like that won't be happening, even if she was liked enough to be used more, 'cause powers in comics hardly get as explored as they should, though on the other hand, Destiny is getting alright uses from her precognition ever since her return, so it is possible, but again, unlikely to happen with Julia, at least right now.

[Lukmendes]

I am right there with you... I don't even know if she still has her own powers or not... It would be cool to see her as a target too bc of her connection to the spider totem.

She does, the same way she mysteriously lost her powers, she mysteriously got 'em back, it's why she's even fighting against Sin Eater when he had Morlun's powers.

Although, they didn't really pay attention to subtle details, since in ASM: Sins of Norman Osborn, Julia is shown web swinging:



But in ASM#57 vol 5, she's explicitly grabbing into Jessica (Who seems to be flying away) to leave:



This is likely the artist's fault though, since the whole story is written by the same guy, and Cindy here is doing the classic Spidey pose to shoot webs, when she actually shoots them from her fingers.

In another point of Last Remains, Jessica is shown web swinging, and she quite explicitly doesn't have webs, at any point, so yeah, they were half assing with the Spiders here...

Speaking of which, I'd be happy if they explained what's the deal with the mysterious symbol Julia's OG outfit shares with the symbiote/alien costume... :P

https://i.imgur.com/UIHdzaQ.png

LOL! Thanks for the explanation. Ever since the revelation that Knull was the creator of the Symbiotes & the designer of the mysterious symbol, I kept wondering why would Julia have anything to do with that guy. I mean, her OG outfit clearly doesn't have any capabilities that a symbiote can do... :P

https://i.imgur.com/nX55u0U.jpg

Originally it was just Spidey subconsciously copying that emblem, but we got stories that take place in Venom's past where he's shown with that emblem before Spidey got it, and Knull made it even worse, since it's not exclusive to Venom either.

Best way to explain that is that it's a huge coincidence, because it'd be difficult to explain that.

An idea I have is that when Grendel (A dragon symbiote Knull commanded) was on Earth, he had that emblem, and it got used here and there on Marvel's world, became associated with spiders and then the government just decided to use it on her costume when giving it to her.

Could also be a case of the government being aware of Grendel (Since Shield was keeping him contained), and then decided to make her costume with his emblem.

Either way, this explanation would retcon Grendel a bit, since he rather clearly had no emblem, and it could be considered too goofy to make the government make a non-symbiote costume have that emblem, but hey, either her costume's design gets some connection with symbiotes (And it'd still be a huge coincidence she just happened to be given a costume with that emblem a while before Spidey gets the symbiote who used the same emblem), or we can say "She just happened to be given a costume with the same emblem Venom had even before he bonded with Spidey", or we can ignore it, Marvel is more likely to do the third one lol.

Early look at Sydney Sweeney as likely Julia Carpenter in the MADAME WEB movie starring Dakota Johnson.
I was surprised that they appear to be gathering all of the Spider-Women. Cassandra, Julia, Mattie Franklin, Mayday...or at least look to be using their names according to some reports/rumors.
https://imgix.bustle.com/uploads/get...ess&q=50&dpr=2

I still wonder if they'll actually use so many Spider-Women... It sounds pretty likely, but I prefer to take rumors with a grain of salt.

If I recall right, according to the new origin of the symbiotes, the "spider" was actually supposed to be a dragon, but bonding with Peter/Spider-Man, who likely did have Julia on the brain thanks to her costume, "warped" the symbol to resemble a spider, although the outstretched legs still somewhat resembled a symbiote dragon's wings spread in flight.

Problem is, Venom is shown with the same emblem before Spidey got the symbiote:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...06/unknown.png

(Venom: Space Knight#12).



(Venom#3 vol 3).

So no matter what it's gonna be a mess to explain this lol.

Jessica Drew was the Spider-Woman I was first introduced to. While she still has a special place with me, it's also second place to Julia Carpenter. I would rather JC be Spider-Woman or Codename: Arachne again but, as mentioned earlier in this topic, there's an overabundance of female spiders.

I thought that making Julia the next Madame Web was a stroke of genius given the psionic nature of her powers, but I also feel that it is a role that should've been teased for the not-so-near future like Old Man Logan or Maestro Hulk, a time when Rachel herself becomes a mother. I think Julia's still young enough to have adventures of her own but, with the female spiders cluttering the east coast, grudgingly accept that the Madame Web mantle gives JC relative safety and distinction. Hmm, maybe she should just pack up with Rach and go west.

Yeah I think her keeping the Madame Web powers is the best right now, while she likely became a Madame Web just to get rid of her as Spider-Woman (I get the impression Grim Hunt was about doing that, since they killed Mattie there and Anya took the Spider-Girl a while after, and if I'm right, Julia is lucky to be alive), it still sucks that she became so sidelined.

Two things right now aren't doing her favors, she's isolated to Spidey's corner, which's really bad because Spidey's side doesn't make use of the other Spiders much, so she mostly isn't even around, and when she is, she doesn't tend to do much, and her being Madame Web is bad too because she's more or less 90's Spidey cartoon Madame with how her powers are used (Show up, same vague, forebonding nonsense, don't help out much), which also sucks for her since it means she's hardly an active part of the story and her fighting skills are just not used.

On the other hand, she really shouldn't lose her Madame Web powers, if they want to get rid of that costume and have her back to Arachne or whatever that's fine, but the Madame Web powers prevent her from being redundant, 'cause if she loses 'em, she has to compete directly with Anya, Cindy, Gwen and Jessica, which's a pretty fierce competition, since Anya and Cindy have some more popularity and get minority points, Gwen is the most popular Spider-Woman, no one seriously competes with her, and Jessica nowadays is related to Avengers teams and has a son, she basically got Julia's previous gimmicks, and she's the more recognizable one between both, so yeah, point is, the stacks would be really against Julia if she lost the Madame Web powers.

I think she should at least leave the Spidey corner though, she showed up in about 60 issues since Grim Hunt, most of them were Spidey related (The only exceptions were in Waid's Daredevil run, and Bunn's Deadpool's Secret Wars, which was a flashback), and her most noteworthy moments where she's not being an annoying precog were in Spider-Island (She gets to fight Spidey in a sparring match, and gets some device activated to get her own precognition back, and that even brings back Spidey's Spider-Sense, but it also powers up the Spider-Queen), getting in a coma right before Superior, being depowered after she wakes up, but actually doing stuff in Prowler's tie-in to Clone Conspiracy (Which unintentionally makes it look like her powers are a crutch lol), and then making a huge gamble to defeat Sin Eater by letting him steal her powers, basically four noticeable moments in 12 years, this is not good.

Like maybe Spidey could still get to use her once in a while, but I think her being isolated to only his corner is damaging her more than anything else, she should be allowed to join teams too, or whatever else.

But speaking of Julia's classic duds, I am surprised that she never seemed to get a storyline alongside Venom. Of all the female Spiders, she'd be the most fitting (apart from Eddie's ex-wife/original She-Venom).

Commissioned piece from artist nunchaku.
Attachment 125811

The other Spider-Women don't really get stories with Venom so that ain't really surprising.

Still though, what story could specifically use Julia besides "Hey, we just happen to use the same emblem"? Lol.

Comic book cover worthy, IMO.

Yeah it's pretty good.

[bat22]

The other Spider-Women don't really get stories with Venom so that ain't really surprising.

Still though, what story could specifically use Julia besides "Hey, we just happen to use the same emblem"? Lol.

The premise for a Julia / Venom story doesn't have to be excessively self-indulgent or self-involved like stories and big events these days.

Julia spent a significant amount of time operating / struggling with the government. She's followed Tony Stark through two Avengers campaigns. And she's also spent time as one of Doctor Strange's Secret Defenders.

So there's more than enough resources for her to have (had) at least one adventure with the notorious Venom.

[Lukmendes]

The premise for a Julia / Venom story doesn't have to be excessively self-indulgent or self-involved like stories and big events these days.

Julia spent a significant amount of time operating / struggling with the government. She's followed Tony Stark through two Avengers campaigns. And she's also spent time as one of Doctor Strange's Secret Defenders.

So there's more than enough resources for her to have (had) at least one adventure with the notorious Venom.

I'm not saying is has to be anything like crossovers (I'm more annoyed than anything at how common they are), I'm just wondering why her in particular would be the most fitting to have an adventure with/against Venom considering their general lack of connections, or even having much in common as characters, besides using almost identical costumes at some point and being parents.

Well, not that they need to have much in common for a cool adventure, but I'm drawing a blank in how this could work, specially with Eddie being more of a space god nowadays (Though the symbiote was still more or less "grounded" the last time I checked).

[bat22]

Yeah I think her keeping the Madame Web powers is the best right now, while she likely became a Madame Web just to get rid of her as Spider-Woman (I get the impression Grim Hunt was about doing that, since they killed Mattie there and Anya took the Spider-Girl a while after, and if I'm right, Julia is lucky to be alive), it still sucks that she became so sidelined.

Two things right now aren't doing her favors, she's isolated to Spidey's corner, which's really bad because Spidey's side doesn't make use of the other Spiders much, so she mostly isn't even around, and when she is, she doesn't tend to do much, and her being Madame Web is bad too because she's more or less 90's Spidey cartoon Madame with how her powers are used (Show up, same vague, forebonding nonsense, don't help out much), which also sucks for her since it means she's hardly an active part of the story and her fighting skills are just not used.

On the other hand, she really shouldn't lose her Madame Web powers, if they want to get rid of that costume and have her back to Arachne or whatever that's fine, but the Madame Web powers prevent her from being redundant, 'cause if she loses 'em, she has to compete directly with Anya, Cindy, Gwen and Jessica, which's a pretty fierce competition, since Anya and Cindy have some more popularity and get minority points, Gwen is the most popular Spider-Woman, no one seriously competes with her, and Jessica nowadays is related to Avengers teams and has a son, she basically got Julia's previous gimmicks, and she's the more recognizable one between both, so yeah, point is, the stacks would be really against Julia if she lost the Madame Web powers.

I think she should at least leave the Spidey corner though, she showed up in about 60 issues since Grim Hunt, most of them were Spidey related (The only exceptions were in Waid's Daredevil run, and Bunn's Deadpool's Secret Wars, which was a flashback), and her most noteworthy moments where she's not being an annoying precog were in Spider-Island (She gets to fight Spidey in a sparring match, and gets some device activated to get her own precognition back, and that even brings back Spidey's Spider-Sense, but it also powers up the Spider-Queen), getting in a coma right before Superior, being depowered after she wakes up, but actually doing stuff in Prowler's tie-in to Clone Conspiracy (Which unintentionally makes it look like her powers are a crutch lol), and then making a huge gamble to defeat Sin Eater by letting him steal her powers, basically four noticeable moments in 12 years, this is not good.

Like maybe Spidey could still get to use her once in a while, but I think her being isolated to only his corner is damaging her more than anything else, she should be allowed to join teams too, or whatever else.

Spider-Gwen (ugh) may be the most recognizable female but popularity in terms of comic sales is a joke these days. She like Miles Morales was saved by her presence in non-comic book media. But her being an Elseworlds' Gwen Stacy also limits her comic book potential in the long run.

Jessica Drew may be aping the mother angle; however, she is saddled with a baby, which means she's cursed with comic book passage of time. Julia at least has Rachel who's old enough to have a personality, contribute to her tales, and is young enough for Julia not to be an old matron.

I likewise feel that "Grim Hunt" was a heavy-handed reshuffling of the Spidey family, including cutting out Cassandra and Mattie.

While I'm not totally disinclined to her being Web 2.0, it sucks that Julia's history and characterization take a back seat to her being a generic seer figure whenever she's around. At least 90s Madame Web was an elderly background character to balance her vagueness and mystery. Web 2.0 is more like a red-tinted female Morpheus waiting to get her butt kicked by an Agent Smith for Peter to take down. For all her lambasted "power upgrades", she's just another Madame Web support figure for Peter to bounce off of. I say create a new elderly woman from Africa, Greece, or South America, brought by fate to NYC where she takes the burden off of Julia.

You're preaching to the choir when it comes to getting Julia the heck away from the Spidey corner. I think she needs to be depowered, maybe even to her 90s level, and from there explore her psionic abilities that make her the heir apparent, sprinkled in between her own adventures as Arachne/low-key Spider-Woman. But the real reward would be getting her further away from this "Great Web" and "Order of the Web" headaches.

I'm not saying anything of the like (Specially a crossover since I'm more annoyed at 'em for existing than anything) lol.



I guess, but I'm just wondering why her in particular would be the most fitting to have an adventure with/against Venom considering their general lack of connections, or even having much in common as characters, besides using almost identical costumes at some point and being parents.

I figure a crossover would work both visually (obviously) but also because of its novelty. The "general lack of connections" would be a plus IMO, as opposed to an adventure where they uncover some significant purpose or meaning behind their meetings with Peter or their spider symbol.

[yam2187]

It is very glad to see a lot of people wanting Julia back to the Arachne.

I always think Julia that is underrated role in the spiderverse.

In my opinion, she has some interesting points that deserves to be main role.



1. A single mom.

Even Jessica is also a single mom. But Julia is some different situations, because her daughter Rachel is a little girl.

They can have conversations, interactions and relationships with other roles.
001.jpg
938063madame-web-hija-marveljpg.jpg

2. Ability

Psi-web is a very interesting power, as mentioned previously, detecting threats and dangers around her, 'feel' where anyone is closing remotely.

I think that Psi-web can follows will to react and form. Like turning to different direction, forming different shapes web or large scale web immediately.
Combine the attack and defense effect.


3. Costume and Style

Julia’s Arachne costume is very impressive and outstanding design.

At the first, strong black and white color contrasts on the costume, blonde hair also contrasts to the black costume. The visual effect is very special.

Second, the Arachne suit consisted of a larger spider symbol with its legs spread open with a sharp edgier design.

The way the spider legs moves over the limb is very clever, draw eyes across her body and highlighting the angle she makes in the battle.

The way the legs move up around the neck and the down the thighs, even spider body down the crotch, all designs are pretty sexy.

002.jpg

Besides, the costume's similarity also provides a possibility to connect the symbiote.

[Huntsman Spider]

Comic book cover worthy, IMO.

I originally wanted one of the lesser known symbiotes, Lasher, to go against all the She-Venom artwork seen with other Marvel ladies or OCs. But I went with the artist's error when it occurred to me that Julia actually suited the pairing more than most any of them.

The follow-up to that image...

Julia rocking out is one hell of a sight for sore eyes.

[bat22]

Julia rocking out is one hell of a sight for sore eyes.

Credit to artist Nunchaku for coming up with the concept, the guitar psi-strings being my humble suggestion. I really like this one, the Venom symbiote possibly being in incredible agony, or hand-banging and tongue-wagging in approval.

[Lukmendes]

Spider-Gwen (ugh) may be the most recognizable female but popularity in terms of comic sales is a joke these days. She like Miles Morales was saved by her presence in non-comic book media. But her being an Elseworlds' Gwen Stacy also limits her comic book potential in the long run.

I don't see how, she's treated as her own thing who just happens to use Gwen's face.

Although her potential has been fucked over lately, and her comics sell like ****, but think about it, she's the most popular Spider-Woman and doesn't sell, Jessica has more people who know of her and doesn't sell, the others are doomed by default.

Jessica Drew may be aping the mother angle; however, she is saddled with a baby, which means she's cursed with comic book passage of time. Julia at least has Rachel who's old enough to have a personality, contribute to her tales, and is young enough for Julia not to be an old matron.

True, though civilian supporting cast members get sidelined hard on the last years, and that unfortunately became much worse once Julia became Madame Web, since Rachel only made sporadic appearances in Slott's ASM, and her last appearance was 10 years ago.

You're still right about Rachel having a chance to do more if they decide to.

I likewise feel that "Grim Hunt" was a heavy-handed reshuffling of the Spidey family, including cutting out Cassandra and Mattie.

Ironically it was a much bigger reshuffling of the Kravinov family, since it brought back Kraven, killed his sons and his wife, leaving only him, Ana and Chameleon around, and Chameleon doesn't tend to get too involved with Kraven lol.

While I'm not totally disinclined to her being Web 2.0, it sucks that Julia's history and characterization take a back seat to her being a generic seer figure whenever she's around. At least 90s Madame Web was an elderly background character to balance her vagueness and mystery. Web 2.0 is more like a red-tinted female Morpheus waiting to get her butt kicked by an Agent Smith for Peter to take down. For all her lambasted "power upgrades", she's just another Madame Web support figure for Peter to bounce off of.

And to make it more frustrating, she acts in a more annoying way compared to Cassandra who tried to be as helpful as she could.

It might not be intentional, but it seems that Julia has a stronger precognition than Cassandra, since Cassandra consistently couldn't see much of the future, but generally updated Spidey with whatever new visions, Julia is vaguer, which annoys Spidey.

It doesn't help that Julia lacks any real reason to do this, 'cause again, Cassandra herself was more useful, and the 90's cartoon Madame Web was annoyingly vague because she was using the situation to train Spidey, so she had a reason to be annoying, Julia is like this just because.

Then again, I wonder how much this is how Marvel sees her, or just Slott, 'cause she was mostly written by him (Although Spider-Girl got tie-ins to Spider-Island, and Julia showed up there, and Julia was still talking in vague ways, though it was a bit more helpful), in Spencer's run she was more active and less annoying, hell, she was even one of the two Spiders in Last Remains' LR issues who got to have a personality and affect the plot (The other was Gwen, and that story originally was gonna have Ben, so I wonder if Gwen was used to take his role) lol.

You're preaching to the choir when it comes to getting Julia the heck away from the Spidey corner. I think she needs to be depowered, maybe even to her 90s level, and from there explore her psionic abilities that make her the heir apparent, sprinkled in between her own adventures as Arachne/low-key Spider-Woman. But the real reward would be getting her further away from this "Great Web" and "Order of the Web" headaches.

I mean, again, the problem with depowering her is that it makes her into just another Spider-Woman.

It would help greatly if they remembered she has Psi-Webs though, with or without Madame Web powers, 'cause she hasn't really used 'em since Grim Hunt, which sucks 'cause the Psi-Webs could be its own thing, like a much shittier Green Lantern ring, and it'd make her stand out even more compared to other Spiders' webs now, because Spidey's webs and others who have organic webs are pretty much interchangeable, so Julia having something more unique would do her a lot of favors.

I figure a crossover would work both visually (obviously) but also because of its novelty.

Visually if she has her usual costume it could look kinda whatever because of the similarity of her costume and Venom's lol.

Like, a team up between Green Lanterns just looks whatever when these guys all have the same-ish costumes.

The "general lack of connections" would be a plus IMO, as opposed to an adventure where they uncover some significant purpose or meaning behind their meetings with Peter or their spider symbol.

I guess so, I did hear that in Wonder Woman comics, after the Asgardian arc, she teamed up with Deadman of all people, I thought it sounded cool, and people who told me about it said it was cool, so weird team ups can work with proper execution and whatnot.

2. Ability

Psi-web is a very interesting power, as mentioned previously, detecting threats and dangers around her, 'feel' where anyone is closing remotely.

I think that Psi-web can follows will to react and form. Like turning to different direction, forming different shapes web or large scale web immediately.
Combine the attack and defense effect.

Psi-Webs is legit the most interesting thing Julia had with her original power-set, too bad it didn't get explored that much, but hey, it got its moments lol.

Like in theory it's more flexible than Spidey's own webs in some ways, but since she controls 'em, it also creates the weakness of relying on her concentration to remain active, which can be a weakness and fail in situations where Spidey's webs wouldn't (Like say, if she was drugged, or just dizzy from a strong hit), there's a ridiculously high potential here, it could very much be a shitty green lantern ring, and considering how overly busted those rings are, that's not an insult lol.

3. Costume and Style

Julia’s Arachne costume is very impressive and outstanding design.

At the first, strong black and white color contrasts on the costume, blonde hair also contrasts to the black costume. The visual effect is very special.

Second, the Arachne suit consisted of a larger spider symbol with its legs spread open with a sharp edgier design.

The way the spider legs moves over the limb is very clever, draw eyes across her body and highlighting the angle she makes in the battle.

The way the legs move up around the neck and the down the thighs, even spider body down the crotch, all designs are pretty sexy.

002.jpg

Thinking of it, that does make it funny that Julia got two cool costumes in a row, and then went with ay, "Chick in a trenchcoat" look lol.

Besides, the costume's similarity also provides a possibility to connect the symbiote.

I think that if a connection is made, and they decided to use the government as a source between this connection, they could have Julia talking with Valerie Cooper to learn more of it, specially since it'd be a nice reminder that they knew each other, were friends even.

On the other hand, if Julia were to contact her, it shouldn't be on friendly terms now, as far as I'm aware, the last time they met was in Julia's Spider-Woman mini, where Valerie basically revealed she manipulated Julia all along, and tried to get her captured again, and hell, even if that didn't happen, she forced Julia to keep working for the government after Julia ditched Freedom Force to save the Avengers... Now that I say it like this, Julia willingly deciding to talk with Valerie sounds really dumb...

Credit to artist Nunchaku for coming up with the concept, the guitar psi-strings being my humble suggestion. I really like this one, the Venom symbiote possibly being in incredible agony, or hand-banging and tongue-wagging in approval.

Why not both? Maybe the music is killing him, but it's so good he doesn't want to get away, it'd be like a symbiote's version of using drugs .

[bat22]

Originally posted by Lukmendes


I don't see how, she's treated as her own thing who just happens to use Gwen's face.

Although her potential has been fucked over lately, and her comics sell like ****, but think about it, she's the most popular Spider-Woman and doesn't sell, Jessica has more people who know of her and doesn't sell, the others are doomed by default.


I'd argue that poor sales have more to do with poor writing, artistry, and direction than any character. The Kamala Khan character is a shining example of this. I haven't bought a contemporary comic in prob over a decade. Marvel and DC have rightfully been getting flack for their "stunning and brave" projects and lackluster, politically-driven creations.

Sooner or later, I think there'll come a time when TPTB want to "go back to basics" and that will mean cutting out all the spider variants. While that would put Julia at risk, even as M. Web, I think the multiverse spiders would be more likely to be shown the door. As hip as Spider-Gwen appears now, she's not nearly as essential as historic Gwen.


True, though civilian supporting cast members get sidelined hard on the last years, and that unfortunately became much worse once Julia became Madame Web, since Rachel only made sporadic appearances in Slott's ASM, and her last appearance was 10 years ago.

You're still right about Rachel having a chance to do more if they decide to.


It's funny how much time really has passed since "Grim Hunt" and how little has been poorly made of the "new" M. Web. But it vexes me to think of how much less (or worse) could've been made of Julia without that role.


And to make it more frustrating, she acts in a more annoying way compared to Cassandra who tried to be as helpful as she could.

It might not be intentional, but it seems that Julia has a stronger precognition than Cassandra, since Cassandra consistently couldn't see much of the future, but generally updated Spidey with whatever new visions, Julia is vaguer, which annoys Spidey.

It doesn't help that Julia lacks any real reason to do this, 'cause again, Cassandra herself was more useful, and the 90's cartoon Madame Web was annoyingly vague because she was using the situation to train Spidey, so she had a reason to be annoying, Julia is like this just because.

Then again, I wonder how much this is how Marvel sees her, or just Slott, 'cause she was mostly written by him (Although Spider-Girl got tie-ins to Spider-Island, and Julia showed up there, and Julia was still talking in vague ways, though it was a bit more helpful), in Spencer's run she was more active and less annoying, hell, she was even one of the two Spiders in Last Remains' LR issues who got to have a personality and affect the plot (The other was Gwen, and that story originally was gonna have Ben, so I wonder if Gwen was used to take his role) lol.


Agreement on vaguery for vaguery's sake! And Julia is made even more obnoxious when she's personally, proactively interfering / dicking around with Peter, whether by herself or with the Order of the Web. So if she isn't being a mostly generic seer, she's an overbearing / obstructive "you don't need to know" superior.


I mean, again, the problem with depowering her is that it makes her into just another Spider-Woman.


I disagree there. Kind of like Peter being trained by elite martial artists, I don't put much stock in piling on a hero's powers / abilities. Before she became M. Web, she wasn't just another Spider-Woman. She was the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman. Spider-Gwen has nothing on her lengthy history, mother aspect, and psionic nature. Julia doesn't have to be the biggest or strongest bitch on the spider-block, just different.

And while I'm saying depower her, I'm also for gradually (and more solidly) building her up as the heir apparent to the M. Web role. Someday. Instead of just getting touched and "you're it".


It would help greatly if they remembered she has Psi-Webs though, with or without Madame Web powers, 'cause she hasn't really used 'em since Grim Hunt, which sucks 'cause the Psi-Webs could be its own thing, like a much shittier Green Lantern ring, and it'd make her stand out even more compared to other Spiders' webs now, because Spidey's webs and others who have organic webs are pretty much interchangeable, so Julia having something more unique would do her a lot of favors.


Darn right, and the psi- (psychic?) factor is something that could be explored in building up her abilities. I'd suggest a Julia / Psylocke team-up but my head's stuck in the 90s. The less I think about the X-Men fan fiction that's been going on in Marvel this past decade or two the better.


Visually if she has her usual costume it could look kinda whatever because of the similarity of her costume and Venom's lol.

Like, a team up between Green Lanterns just looks whatever when these guys all have the same-ish costumes.


I hated it when DC rolled out with Emerald Twilight and left us with Kyle Rayner's one-horse town. The Silver Age GL concept really appeals to me.

I forgot that Venom and Julia actually VERY briefly encountered each other in Secret Defenders 20, but little was made of their costumes other than Venom seemed to approve of hers. Not nearly as confusing as Shadowoman who straight up looked like the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman.


I guess so, I did hear that in Wonder Woman comics, after the Asgardian arc, she teamed up with Deadman of all people, I thought it sounded cool, and people who told me about it said it was cool, so weird team ups can work with proper execution and whatnot.


I'll take weird team ups over the latest big event group meeting.


Why not both? Maybe the music is killing him, but it's so good he doesn't want to get away, it'd be like a symbiote's version of using drugs .


I can go for that!